People faced problems in withdrawing cash from the ATMs in the city on Sunday as most of the machines were not dispensing money. Banks officials said cash would be provided in most of the ATMs from Monday. Bank officials also said many ATMs had been recalibrated to dispense Rs 2,000 notes. Many ATMs were not working in Phase V, Phase 3B2, Phase 2 and Phase 11 on Sunday and many people went to other areas of the city where they had to stand in long queues. Some ATMs were dispensing cash in Phase IX and Phase VII.

Meanwhile, demonetisation has hit labourers hard as the labour chowk in Madanpura village bore a deserted look on Sunday. A few labourers were waiting for work.

Subash, a labourer, said earlier there used to be heavy rush on the chowk after after November 9 few people are coming to hire them due to the shortage of cash. He added that on Sunday there were only 15-20 labourers but on week days, more than 100 labourers come to the chowk.

Similarly, there were only ten labourers at Kharar Labour Chowk. Rattan Singh, who used to work with the masons, said they did not get money for the past nine days. He added that he could not pay the fees of his son who is studying in Class X class in his village in Mamupur and requested the school authorities to give him a few days.

Lead District Manager, R K Saini, said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had given the sufficient cash to the currency chests in Punjab, Chandigarh and other neighbouring states and the supply of cash in the ATMs would be normal in two-three days.

“The RBI releases the cash to the currency chests in the states, there are 164 cash chests in Punjab, these currency chests then releases the required amount to the banks, RBI was working in Saturday and Sunday to release the cash, now the banks will get the required cash on Monday till and are directed to deposit the cash in their ATMs till 10 am,” added Saini.